Daren Miller’s Cancer Journey
Donation protected
After visiting a doctor for stomach pains Daren had a colonoscopy and an endoscopy on June 7, 2018. Shortly after waking up from these procedures the doctors informed Daren and his family that he had colorectal cancer. Their world instantly changed.
His original diagnosis was colorectal cancer, but found out during his first surgery this summer that some cancer cells had gotten lose and landed on his peritoneum. So, his diagnosis now is Stage 4 peritoneal carcinomatosis, a fancy way of saying that the cancer had spread from its origin to another organ, the peritoneum.
During the last four months, he has completed 10 rounds of chemotherapy. Even though this is a pretty tough cancer, we decided to do everything possible to beat it. Daren is scheduled to have further surgery, the procedure is called CRS (cytoreductive surgery) with HIPEC (hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy) which is very complicated and specialized procedure often called “the mother of all surgeries”, and last usually about 10-12 hours. I’ll give you a quick explanation of the surgery. The first part is the cytoreductive surgery. During this part the surgeon open up the entire abdominal cavity and then removes any visible cancer from all organs. He will physically inspect each organ including the peritoneal lining and remove what is necessary. The surgery is aggressive, often removing organs that he can live without, etc. This part lasts the longest. The second part of the surgery involves circulating heated chemotherapy drugs in the abdomen for 90 minutes to hopefully kill any tumors too small to see or any cancer cells floating around. Patients are not approved for this surgery unless the surgeon is confident that all cancer can be removed, as the surgery is not worth the trauma and risk without the goal or removing all the cancer. Again, this was a very quick rundown of the surgery. For recovery, he will be in the hospital in Baltimore for 1-2 weeks, and then staying in the Baltimore area for an additional week to make sure there are no complication and to ensure he can care for myself outside a hospital. Totally recovery time is expected to be 6-8 weeks.
Daren and his family are truly blessed to have the support of so many people. The words of encouragement, the cards, the text messages, and the prayers are all appreciated.
Thank you in advance for keeping Daren and his family in your thoughts and prayers as we go along with them on this journey.
His original diagnosis was colorectal cancer, but found out during his first surgery this summer that some cancer cells had gotten lose and landed on his peritoneum. So, his diagnosis now is Stage 4 peritoneal carcinomatosis, a fancy way of saying that the cancer had spread from its origin to another organ, the peritoneum.
During the last four months, he has completed 10 rounds of chemotherapy. Even though this is a pretty tough cancer, we decided to do everything possible to beat it. Daren is scheduled to have further surgery, the procedure is called CRS (cytoreductive surgery) with HIPEC (hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy) which is very complicated and specialized procedure often called “the mother of all surgeries”, and last usually about 10-12 hours. I’ll give you a quick explanation of the surgery. The first part is the cytoreductive surgery. During this part the surgeon open up the entire abdominal cavity and then removes any visible cancer from all organs. He will physically inspect each organ including the peritoneal lining and remove what is necessary. The surgery is aggressive, often removing organs that he can live without, etc. This part lasts the longest. The second part of the surgery involves circulating heated chemotherapy drugs in the abdomen for 90 minutes to hopefully kill any tumors too small to see or any cancer cells floating around. Patients are not approved for this surgery unless the surgeon is confident that all cancer can be removed, as the surgery is not worth the trauma and risk without the goal or removing all the cancer. Again, this was a very quick rundown of the surgery. For recovery, he will be in the hospital in Baltimore for 1-2 weeks, and then staying in the Baltimore area for an additional week to make sure there are no complication and to ensure he can care for myself outside a hospital. Totally recovery time is expected to be 6-8 weeks.
Daren and his family are truly blessed to have the support of so many people. The words of encouragement, the cards, the text messages, and the prayers are all appreciated.
Thank you in advance for keeping Daren and his family in your thoughts and prayers as we go along with them on this journey.
Organizer
Dori Miller Leslie
Organizer
Sioux Falls, SD